Brazil court to rule from Sept 2 in Bolsonaro coup trial

BRASILIA (AFP): Brazil’s Supreme Court will begin deciding on September 2 whether former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro is guilty of plotting a coup and whether he should be imprisoned, the court said Friday.

Bolsonaro is accused of attempting to hold power despite his 2022 electoral defeat by Brazil’s current leftist leader, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

He faces up to 40 years in prison if found guilty.

The Supreme Court statement said the ruling would be considered “during extraordinary sessions on September 2, 3, 9, 10 and 12.”

Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia on January 8, 2023, a week after Lula’s inauguration, alleging election fraud and calling on the military to intervene.

Bolsonaro, who led the Latin American country from 2019 to 2022, has maintained his innocence, calling any coup “abhorrent.”

The prosecutor’s office maintains that Bolsonaro led an “armed criminal organization” that orchestrated the coup attempt and was to be its main beneficiary.

The case file also focuses on meetings where draft decrees were allegedly presented, including those involving the possible imprisonment of officials such as Supreme Court judges.

However, the defense has stressed that “there is no way to convict” Bolsonaro based on the evidence presented in the case file, which they argued adequately demonstrated that he ordered the transition of power to Lula.

His lawyers have questioned the validity of the plea bargain handed to Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro’s former aide, on whose testimony many of the accusations are based.

Bolsonaro’s legal wranglings are at the center of fizzing diplomatic tensions between Brazil and the United States.

President Donald Trump has called the trial a “witch hunt” and the US Treasury Department has sanctioned Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing Bolsonaro’s trial, in response.

Trump has also signed an executive order slapping 50 percent tariffs on many Brazilian imports, citing Bolsonaro’s “politically motivated persecution.”

Bolsonaro was placed under house arrest in Brasilia this month for violating a ban on using social media to plead his case to the public.